


Meta Reading of The Flash (1990)

by peoriapeoria



Category: The Flash (TV 1990)
Genre: Gen, Meta, Pet Fly Productions, Slash, Tropes, non-fiction, tone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-29
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:07:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23385010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peoriapeoria/pseuds/peoriapeoria
Summary: How does a television show hold up thirty years later? Let's find out!
Comments: 3
Kudos: 2
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge, Non-Fiction Works:The Meta





	Meta Reading of The Flash (1990)

I watched The Flash (1990), 22 episodes with a double length pilot. I'm tumblr aware of The Flash that's been on much more recently, so this is written with some bounce back. Let's get started.

Barry Allen is set up as the younger son in a cop family; he's the one that became a scientist and works in the forensics lab. This is where he, lightning and chemical reagents will combine into The Flash. Iris appears in the first few episodes but clearly Pet Fly are having some difficulties threading the needle regarding how to have heterosexuality that doesn't violate the double standard. Remember, in the double standard, good girls get married and bad girls can have sex; men can have sex as long as their schedule allows, which mostly The Flash doesn't except when it does.

Dr. Tina McGee is our UST female lead. She's a widow, her scientist husband died of a DoD contract that was 'build us superpowers' adjacent and works at Star Labs. Continuity is a little hand-wavy so don't worry, Just Say Comics(TM). Julio Mendez is the work colleague and friend that facilitates Barry's disappearances and gets blind dates set up etc. He's saved from any serious Comic Relief duties by the two beat cops that take on that load.

Now, I mentioned Pet Fly Productions for the very specific reason that The Sentinel has given slash fandom so much. That's basically a comic book action cop show without any capes. The Flash just isn't the same. Part of that is Tina and Julio are two people and in The Sentinel, Blair Sandburg gets all the roles. Really, there's room for doing scene by scene Who is Blair Being? Also, in The Sentinel, we're rationed Who Is Jim Ellison and given much more Blair Sandburg, so that they're a Team. In the Flash, we never get to forget it's Barry Allen that's our protagonist.

Now, we do get some wonderful Guest Star Moments. Mark Hamill plays a serial killer that goes costumed crazed because Central City just is that way. The character of Megan Lockhart is a PI that learns Barry's secret and she comes back as a femme hard boiled as a way of getting out of the UST bind. We get a retro Masked Crusader of Nightshade so Barry gains a mentor. There are also turns of John Wesley Shipp playing a cloned speedster and Amanda Pays acting uncharacteristically 'bad girl'.

That it didn't make it to a second season isn't too surprising. While this has the Dick Tracy looks, it wasn't really what the 90s was in the market for. 900 number voting on killing Robin was what was happening in the pages of DC. They had to pay for a lot of fireballs and other visual mayhem. Also, time was a little wonky; they weren't really sure how to deal with America's racism which they said was In The Past. However 'past' didn't really mean much other than men once were young and now they weren't; 1930s-1940s cars are frequently on screen as infrastructure vehicles though Barry's personal car is 'current'.


End file.
